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| 1 |  AFP - Amazon, under US pressure for hosting WikiLeaks, booted it from its computer servers on Wednesday, prompting the whistleblower website to shift to Web-hosting services in Europe. Yahoo! News: Internet News » | | 2 | LONDON (Reuters) - From keeping the WikiLeaks site alive to helping British anti-austerity protesters outmaneuver riot police, Twitter is entering the Western political mainstream as a powerful tool for dissent.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 3 |  Reuters - From keeping the WikiLeaks site alive to helping British anti-austerity protesters outmaneuver riot police, Twitter is entering the Western political mainstream as a powerful tool for dissent. Yahoo! News: Personal Technology » | | 4 | Reuters - Russian hacker attacks on the country's biggest blog site and a spy agency's warning to Gmail and Skype have raised fears that authorities are tightening their grip on dissent in a China-like assault on free speech. Yahoo! News: Internet News » | | 5 | MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russian hacker attacks on the country's biggest blog site and a spy agency's warning to Gmail and Skype have raised fears that authorities are tightening their grip on dissent in a China-like assault on free speech.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 6 | Reuters - Representative Anthony Weiner, embroiled in a sex scandal for sending lewd photos of himself to women over the Internet, has told House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi he will resign from Congress, a party source said on Thursday. Yahoo! News: Internet News » | | 7 |  AFP - US Representative Anthony Weiner faced political uncertainty after he quit Congress, apologizing for the scandal over his lewd online exchanges with women that led to a political uproar. Yahoo! News: Internet News » | | 8 | You know, those who claim that the political landscape in the US is too polarized do have a point. There are only two dominant parties in the country, and when you think of the actual size of its territory then you can but wonder how representative that can be. It is interesting to see platforms like Ruck. Read more Learn more about Ruck.us in Dataopedia.com Find out how much Ruck.us is worth with Stimator.com killerstartups.com » | | 9 | With the government coming under fire from all possible angles, it's only good to see websites like this one being launched. Purple Sight intends to bring all kind of political discussions into perspective by providing users with two diverging opinions on what is being discussed. These are the "Red" and "Blue" vantage points, and the idea is to let users of the site to see both sides of any issue, and gain a new understanding of what is being argued regardless of where they actually fall on the political spectrum. Read more Learn more about PurpleSight.com in Dataopedia.com Find out how much PurpleSight.com is worth with Stimator.com killerstartups.com » | | 10 |  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - After the "Arab Spring" surprised the world with the power of technology to revolutionize political dissent, governments are racing to develop strategies to respond to, and even control, the new player in the political arena -- social media.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 11 | Social-media companies have "friended" the 2012 presidential contest at a level almost unimaginable just four years ago, hosting debates and sponsoring presidential town halls while remaining indispensable tools for candidates looking to connect with voters in the digital sphere.
Giants like Facebook and Google cast their involvement as civic engagement, saying they are eager to help facilitate the national political conversation and encourage people to vote. But their stepped-up political presence comes as those companies and others hire lobbyists, form political action committees and nurture their relationships with lawmakers whose policy decisions affect the companies' bottom line.
"The exposure -- being branded as `the' place to go for social media -- has huge economic consequences for these companies," said Heather LaMarre, a journalism professor at the University of Minnesota who studies politics and the Internet. "When they appear to be socially active and engaged in democracy, they develop a vast well of good will with the political elites who have the ability to make or break them in the future."
Facebook, by far the largest and most influential of the online social networks, formed a PAC this month to make contributions to candidates. The company also spent $550,000 for 21 lobbyists in the first half of this year to help it navigate potential legislative battles over privacy, patent and regulatory issues. That figure is small compared to other media companies of its size, but well on its way to double the $350,000 it spent in all of 2010, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which studies political money and influence.
At the same time, Facebook has boosted its visibility in the presidential contest. The company is scheduled to co-host a Republican primary debate in New Hampshire with NBC's Meet the Press show days before that state's first in the nation primary. Facebook founder... newsfactor.com » | | 12 | SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's president emerged as the unlikely star of Seoul's mayoral elections last week, but in a way he could not have dreamed of - as the butt of satire in a wildly popular podcast that helped end his party's grip on the country's capital.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 13 | Rick Perry had barely gotten through his gaffe in Wednesday's Republican primary debate when a rolling commentary on the TV screen declared his campaign on life support.
"Perry is done," came a Twitter posting from a viewer called (at)PatMcPsu, even while the Texas governor struggled to name the third of three federal agencies he said he would eliminate as president. Another, called (at)sfiorini, messaged, "Whoa? Seriously, Rick Perry? He can't even name the agencies he wants to abolish. Wow. Just wow."
Perry insists his campaign isn't over and has vowed to move on from his meltdown.
One used to have to wait for several minutes after the debate ended for analysis of the 2012 presidential contest. But if Wednesday's exchange is any indication, social networking has become the instant punditry. The 140-character messages known as tweets came from ordinary viewers and prominent campaign strategists alike.
Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook have long been hotbeds of political conversation, largely for an insider crowd of activists and news junkies. But CNBC, which aired the debate, took things a step further, featuring an onscreen crawl of tweets from viewers reacting to what was transpiring onstage. That allowed ordinary viewers to chime in on the political conversation and an even larger audience.
Social media provides "a real time citizen voice," according to Matthew Nisbet, an associate professor of communications at American University who studies politics and digital media.
"It's no longer a passive audience experience, watching commentators and political strategists discussing what is being seen on the screen," Nisbet said. "Now people can hear it from a more diverse range of voices, and potentially from their peers."
CNBC spokesman Brian Steel said the network, which specializes in business and financial news and runs a continuous stock ticker, viewed social media as a natural partner for the debate.
"During business hours... newsfactor.com » | | 14 | While protesters make their feelings known about the presidential elections in Egypt, cyber activists are making their voice heard through distributed denial of service, or DDoS attacks, in the wake of Russia's parliament election.
President Vladmir Putin appears to be the slim winner, despite a communist rally. And the international community is using terms like voter fraud to describe the outcome. Indeed, election watchers are calling Russia's elections the dirtiest in years. And that has led to cyber attacks against the press that's calling out the apparent violations.
Moscow Echo, a popular Russian radio station, as well as Golos, an election monitoring group, are among those reporting massive cyber attacks against their operations. Meanwhile, the AFP reports several opposition news sites were also inaccessible on Sunday. Moscow Echo editor-in-chief Alexei Venediktov took to Twitter to spread the news: "The attack on the Web site on Election Day is clearly an attempt to inhibit publication of information about violations."
Political Activism Rising
Mike Paquette, chief strategy officer at Corero Network Security, said the massive DDoS attacks against independent news sites covering the Russian elections is more proof that true political activism is a real -- and strong -- motivator for Internet DDoS Attack activity. He said DDoS attacker motivations include criminal extortion, unfair business advantage, ideological and political activism, and pure fun.
"It is interesting to note ideological activism can be thought of as a superset, and is not strictly limited to electoral or government politics," Paquette said. "These recent events place DDoS at the heart of electoral politics, with claims being made that high-level officials, in attempts to sway election results, used DDoS attacks as a mechanism of propaganda, censorship, information withholding, and unfair political advantage."
As Paquette sees it, cyber attacks, especially DDoS attacks, present a material threat to governments around the... newsfactor.com » | | 15 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Preparing to join the ranks of publicly traded companies, Facebook Inc is also beefing up its presence in the U.S. capital with a first report of money pouring into its newly created political fundraising arm.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 16 | As campaign rhetoric boils and Americans on both sides of the political divide hurl insults, law enforcement officials are watching social media carefully for threats or signs of violence.
The Secret Service says political incivility is nothing new, but the Internet is making more of the venom public.
"Historically, it's the same issues we've always had and the same things people are upset about," Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said. "There are just a lot more venues for people to put it out there, including the Internet."
Last week, a group of Arizona men, including a Peoria, Ariz., police sergeant, triggered a federal investigation when they appeared in a photo posted on Facebook with weapons and what appears to be a bullet-riddled image of President Obama. The sergeant has been removed from patrol and assigned to desk duties pending an internal investigation.
On Wednesday, the Secret Service assigned protection to Mitt Romney, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. Republican contender Herman Cain, who has dropped out of the race, had also received federal protection.
The Secret Service assesses every potential threat, or what Sullivan calls "inappropriate interest," to determine whether someone is simply mouthing off or intends to act. The agency won't say how many threats it fields. "We are very aggressive in running it down," Sullivan said.
The agency established an Internet threat desk in 2000, spokesman Ed Donovan said. "Logic dictates we receive more information to sift through and look at, but it doesn't necessarily translate to more cases," he said.
Donald Tucker, a Phoenix private investigator who served as a Secret Service agent for 25 years, says he's stunned by the level of incivility and disrespect. He said he fears the nasty rhetoric could trigger violence.
"I have never seen any political campaign with the type of hatred, animosity and language directed not only... newsfactor.com » | | 17 | Chinese officials face a choice in Apple's dispute with a local company over the iPad trademark -- side with a struggling entity that a court says owns the name or with a global brand that has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in China. Experts say that means Beijing's political priorities rather than the courts will settle the dispute if it escalates.
Shenzhen Proview Technology has asked regulators to seize iPads in China in a possible prelude to pressing Apple Inc. for a payout. There have been seizures in some cities but no sign of action by national-level authorities.
Proview has a strong case under Chinese trademark law, but that could quickly change if Beijing decides to intervene to avoid disrupting iPad sales or exports from factories in southern China where the popular tablet computers are made, legal experts say.
"If this becomes political -- and it's very easy to see this becoming political -- then I think Apple's chances look pretty good," said Stan Abrams, an American lawyer who teaches intellectual property law at Beijing's Central University of Finance and Economics.
The dispute centers on whether Apple acquired the iPad name in China when it bought rights in various countries from a Proview affiliate in Taiwan in 2009 for 35,000 British pounds ($55,000).
Apple insists it did. But Proview, which registered the iPad trademark in China in 2001, won a ruling from a mainland Chinese court in December that it was not bound by that sale. Apple appealed and a hearing is scheduled for Feb. 29.
"My gut reaction is that many of these activities really could be seen as pre-settlement brinksmanship," said David Wolf, a technology marketing consultant in Beijing. "Proview's motive is money, not to shut down Apple."
Shenzhen Proview Technology is a subsidiary of LCD screen maker Proview International Holdings Ltd., headquartered in... newsfactor.com » | | 18 | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. regulators on Friday proposed a rule that would move television broadcasters' public files to the Internet, making it easier to access information about political spending on TV advertising.
Reuters: Internet News » | | 19 | A massive hacker attack has crippled an overseas Web site that has reported extensively on China's biggest political turmoil in years, underscoring the pivotal role the Internet has played in the unfolding scandal.
North Carolina-based Boxun.com was forced to move to a new web hosting service Friday after its previous host said the attacks were threatening its entire business, Web site manager Watson Meng told The Associated Press. He believes the attacks were ordered by China's security services, but it isn't clear where they were launched from.
The assaults on Boxun's server followed days of reporting on Bo Xilai, formerly one of the country's most powerful politicians, who was fired as head of the mega-city of Chongqing and suspended from the Communist Party's powerful Politburo amid accusations of his wife's involvement in the murder of a British businessman.
The scandal has deeply embarrassed Communist Party leaders obsessed with controlling their image and imposing strict secrecy over their inner workings.
Six years ago, when Shanghai's powerful boss was toppled, Chinese social media was in its infancy and months went by with no word on the case against him.
Today, the dynamics have changed, and when the government fails to release information about a key political development, the online rumor mill goes into overdrive, with China's half-a-billion Internet users taking to blogs, foreign news sites, and -- most significantly -- Weibo, China's hugely popular version of Twitter.
"People on Weibo used to care mainly about lifestyle issues, but this time we're seeing it play an unprecedented role in spreading political information and opinion," said Zhan Jiang, a professor at Beijing Foreign Studies University's School of Mass Media.
The first whiff of the Bo scandal came when his former right-hand man, ex-Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun, breached protocol with a surprising Feb. 6 visit -- first reported in Weibo postings... newsfactor.com » |
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